The reason we are going to Valletta today is because I bought us tickets to an event happening at St. John’s Co-Cathedral this evening. It’s music and story-telling about the early history of the Knights of St. John and about Caravaggio, the famous painter who was in Malta in the early 1600s.
Since we had to go to Valletta I added, to our list of things to do, a visit to the two most prominent skyline features of Valletta, St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral and Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We’ve never visited either church.
Christine wanted to walk to the ferries side of Sliema, so we set off going up Dingli Street and then choosing a small street parallel that was in the shade. While the sun is hot, there is still a considerable wind today. We love walking along the streets. There are always lovely building fronts and interesting things to see.
We arrived at the Sliema front and wandered around a bit looking in souvenir shops. What a lot of stuff there is to buy with the bulk of it made in China. We headed to the ferry to cross the harbor to Valletta. As usual, Christine struck up a conversation with a couple from the U.K. They compared notes about places in the U.K. I didn’t think we’d get on the ferry because there were so many people in line, but we did. I think the capacity is 200 on the ferry and for sure every single seat was taken and then some. It’s a quick 10 minute ride across the harbor. Once in Valletta, it’s an uphill climb to get into the city.
At the top of the hill, we rested on a bench under a tree and enjoyed the view across the harbor to Sliema, which is all very tall condo buildings now. As we sat, a karrozzin stopped near us.
St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral is an Anglican church in the Diocese of Gibraltar. There are only two Anglican churches in Malta. With the British in Malta from 1802 until 1979, you can imagine the importance of a large Anglican church in Malta. Queen Adelaide, wife of King William IV, visited Malta in the early 1830s and when she learned that there was no Anglican church, she commissioned one to be built. The cathedral was build between 1839 and 1844. Queen Adelaide laid the foundation stone and throughout the cathedral are photos and memorial engravings to Queen Adelaide. The building is made of Maltese limestone and it is in the neo-classical style. I was rather surprised by the church’s plainness. Most of the walls were full of memorials for British soldiers. There wasn’t a single stained glass window in the church.
What I found fun were the seat cushions in the choir stall. The long benches have needlepoint cushions that were the music and words of anthems or canticles that are sung during the service.
During WWII, the church’s roof collapsed during a bombing, but the spire survived.
Christine loved the displays of Queen Elizabeth II who visited the church several times. She lived in Malta from 1949 to 1951 and is beloved. There was a whole table full of QEII memorabilia.
Across the street from the church was a building with the most Maltese balconies I’ve ever seen in one place.
We headed towards the Carmelite church around the corner. We didn’t find an entrance. That’s because it was closed. Although I had read the church is open to visitors, it is only open in the morning or the very late afternoon. Oh well, that will be something to visit another time. One thing that I learned about his iconic domed church, that I thought was very old, is that it was constructed since WWII. The original church was bombarded and extensively damaged and so a new church was built between 1958 and 1981. I was so surprised by how new the dome is.
While walking along Merchant Street Christine saw inside a building that advertised a cafe. The building houses the Malta National Community Art Museum and was once the headquarters of the Italian Knights of the Order of St. John, the Auberge d’Italie. We sat in the central courtyard of this 16th century building. It was lovely and quiet. The streets of Valletta are noisy and overcrowded with tourists. There are two gigantic cruise ships in port, so thousands of tourists are roaming around Valletta today. Nevertheless, the courtyard cafe was an oasis. We had a very tasty lunch of smoked burrata with compressed peaches with thyme. It was really yummy.
We then walked over to Barrakka Garden to spend some time enjoying the view.
We were in time for the daily 4:00 p.m. firing of the cannon from the saluting battery. There is a very long history to the saluting battery starting after the Great Siege of 1565. The tradition of firing a cannon at a set time every day started in Malta around 1824. The purpose was for ships to be able to set time to the noon cannon shot. The British continued this tradition up until WWII when much of the Grand Harbor was blasted to smithereens. The battery was patched up and continued its cannon firing until 1954. After Maltese independence from the British, the renovation of Barrakka Garden and the saluting battery came under Maltese hands. Eventually, in 2004, Heritage Malta funded the return of the cannon shot tradition. It is now one of the bigger tourist draws. The cannon is fired twice per day, at noon and at 4:00 p.m. (It will take a long time for the video below to load.)
Here are some photos of the cruise ships. The larger one is the MSC World Europa which carries 6,782 passengers. It has 22 decks! The Holland America Nieuw Statendam carries 3,214 passengers. That’s a lot of people in port!
We still had some time before our show, so we sat on a bench near St. John’s Co-Cathedral and people watched. It’s always fun and Christine especially likes connecting with young children. We watched a man with his 14-month-old in his arms chasing pigeons, which the little girl thoroughly enjoyed. Her grandfather and Christine chatted for a bit talking about the U.K. and her father’s listening station and intelligence activities during the war.
Finally, time for our show. Our tickets provided us with 30 minute access to St. John’s. This place is just out of this world. There is not one inch within the church that isn’t covered with something – stone, marble, gold, carvings, statues, paintings, etc. It is probably the most highly decorated church we’ve ever seen. It is definitely over the top. I love the marble floors the most as there are hundreds of crypt tops covering the floor.
The performance was in the Oratory. It was titled Valletta Resounds: The Caravaggio Experience, and it elegantly strings together Malta’s cultural heritage with theatrical storytelling and classical music. The Oratory itself is a fabulous setting. At one end hangs the huge painting by Caravaggio, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.
The storyteller is a Knight of St. John who provides a history of the Knights and how they came to be in Malta. He recalls the Great Siege of 1565 and how Valletta was built after the battle. Interspersed were musical selections, the first was played on the psaltery with a soprano signing a solemn piece as she came down the aisle in the Oratory. After more storytelling, the musician who played the psaltery played a Baroque cello. He played the Bach cello Sonata which sounded so beautiful in the Oratory. Then, after more storytelling, the same musician accompanied the soprano on the harp. They did Rejoice Greatly from Handel’s Messiah. I was mesmerized by the harp player. That was not an easy piece on the harp.
The storyteller gave great detail about the painter Caravaggio, who was given a minor Knight status while in Malta. We learned all about the famous painting. At one point, a very dramatic lighting was used sequentially to highlight the various key pieces in the painting. That was very dramatic and very interesting. There was more singing and harp playing, and then singing and organ music, which the same guy played. The storyteller ended the evening with a wrap up. It was definitely an interesting performance and I’m very glad that we got tickets for it. The setting alone was worth the ticket price and I really found the musician playing the the 4 different instruments to be fabulously talented.
After the concert, we walked to the bus stop. We didn’t have to wait long and the crowds weren’t quite so large. With little traffic, we made it home in less than 30 minutes. We both scavenged for dinner from our little fridge and headed to bed.
Here are a couple of photos taken around Valletta.
It was a great day with a variety of activities. We plan to only rest and do a little grocery shopping tomorrow because we have another big activity planned for Friday.